Today we are continuing our summer teaching series in the book of Hebrews called “Christ Above All”.

Hebrews was written to a persecuted group of Christians in or around the city of Rome, and under the pressure of the moment, they were tempted to return to their Jewish roots to escape the persecution that came with the name of Jesus.

But as we find in the letter itself, the author has gone to great lengths to show these weary Christians that Christ is better than anything else they can turn to- they shouldn’t give up on him.

The message from the writer of Hebrews is loud and clear: “There’s no life in the old way of doing things. The only source of salvation is Christ alone. He is above all.”

As chapter 8 begins, the writer of Hebrews is about to bring all the conversations about the priesthood of Christ to a head with a final and decisive declaration.j.The message from the writer of Hebrews is loud and clear: “There’s no life in the old way of doing things. The only source of salvation is Christ alone. He is above all.”

For several chapters the author has been establishing Jesus as a better high priest through highlighting his better qualities than the earthly priesthood. And He puts the crowning point on his argument when he says “It’s true, we have such a high priest in Christ Jesus, and his is at work in heaven as we speak.

And notice Jesus is not in the earthly tabernacle or temple, but in the heavenly realm. The Author is establishing the superiority of Christ’s priesthood by contrast between the earthly and the heavenly realm.

Because he wasn’t the right family line, he couldn’t have been a priest on earth. The author seems to want to get the point across, Jesus is no normal priest.

In verse 5, the author says that the normal priestly activities happen at a tabernacle that is only a mere copy or replica of the real thing. The point is that the tabernacle that they loved so much, while it was close, it was never the thing.

The writer also says that the old covenant didn’t work and that God needed to do something new.

In verse 7 the author implies that if the original covenant would have been working, there wouldn’t have been any need for something new to be done. Of course, the issue was not with the covenant itself, the problem was that God’s people couldn’t keep it.

So, if God wanted relationship with his people, he was going to have to do a new thing- a new covenant. (And spoiler alert: that’s what we have in Christ Jesus.)

Using the prophecy of Jeremiah, the author of Hebrews outlines the details of the new covenant.

If this relationship was going to work, something would have to be different, and that something, was us.

The New Covenant offers the people of God the promise of relationship with God through a new and transformed heart, through the forgiveness of sins, and a personal relationship with God himself.

Whereas the presence of God was to be found in the tabernacle before, now in the new covenant the presence of God is within his people. The law was not just going to be chiseled into stones and coped onto paper- The spirit of God was going to bring it into our hearts and minds.

If this relationship was going to work, something would have to be different, and that something, was us.

If we were going to attempt to summarize all of Chapter 8 into a few sentences- what could that be? It might seem cliché at first, but I think you can summarize it by saying “Christ is above all”

Think about it, throughout this chapter we see that Christ is the superior priest, ministering in the true and better tabernacle, and he is the mediator of a better covenant. Christ is above all.

To the original audience that was considering returning to their Jewish roots this had to be a difficult teaching. “There’s no life in those old ways. All that stuff is obsolete. Now that Jesus was here, there was nowhere else to go to find life. Not in any temple, not in any ceremonial works, nothing."

In this context, this chapter makes sense.

But what about for us? What should we see here?

I don’t think too many of you are contemplating switching over to practicing Judaism today. But I do believe that it is easy for us to lose sight of the reality that it is Christ alone that provides our salvation.

He gives us a new heart, He forgiveness of sins, and He brings us into right relationship with God. This is the basic foundation of our faith.

But so many times whether it’s by a temptation of the enemy, or our own insecurities and doubts- we begin to feel not good enough. Like we haven’t done enough to be ok with God or maybe we feel like we’ve done too much to be in right relationship with God.

So we try to do more, try to live a better life, try to pray more, cuss less, give the church some of our money- all in the feeble attempt to be enough.

And the reality is, we can never do enough and we can never be good enough. It's a hopeless endeavor.

But here's the good news for us: Christ is above all. Our salvation isn't based on what we can do, but what He has done. Our calling is to place our faith and trust in Him.

It's the foundational truth of the Gospel and it's the power of God to save us! Will you place your faith and trust Christ and what he's done for you?